This Ford F-350-Based Luxotruck is an American Brute Called the 'Nighthawk'

At the kickoff of the 2018 SEMA show on Oct. 30, Zero to 60 Designs debuted a monstrous conceptual luxury truck which it calls the Nighthawk.

Zero to 60 Designs built the Nighthawk on the platform of a 2018 Ford F-350 Lariat extended cab pickup truck with four-wheel-drive, which the company describes as "modest." (The world in which a $59,400 mega-pickup is modest is unbeknownst to us.) The design studio raised the vehicle's roofline by five inches to increase headroom, threw two seats into the area that was once the bed, and re-upholstered most of the interior in leather. Zero to 60 Designs touts "modern amenities" within the Nighthawk's confines, but doesn't specify whether that means an espresso machine or a 55-gallon drum of köttbullar.

"It's no secret that we love diving into unique challenges and producing one-off custom creations, as evident by our prior work," said Zero to 60 Designs' Kenny Pfitzer. "The Nighthawk was a whole different animal, however."

"What we love about this custom-luxury SUV is that it all came from a simple, yet elegant concept—we wanted to create the world's most rugged, tough and luxurious SUV, and we believe we've accomplished that. Starting with a platform like the Ford F-350 Lariat four-by-four and trying to improve on an already impressive foundation was certainly no easy task. Then again, that's why we're in the business of making custom creations, isn't it? If it were that easy, everyone would be doing it."

But other companies are doing ultra-luxury pickup conversions, many with more pizzazz than the still Ford-faced Nighthawk. An Italian firm called Aznom converts Ram pickups into hulking brown luxury vehicles with a sedan's silhouette and calls them the Atulux, and vaporware hypercar king Devel Motors is working on a six-wheeled, coal-rolling, luxurious super-SUV that it calls the Sixty.

Competition in the field of ostentatious luxury SUVs is stiffer than ever before, and something that's still recognizably a Ford may not hold up well given the other options. If this is your cup of tea, though, Zero to 60 Designs will take your order at its SEMA Show booth.